Dr. Lecon ( Lee ) Woo was trained
in chemical physics from the
University
of Chicago.
To date,
he has been named inventor or co-inventor in 53 patents on medical
devices, materials, and processes while contributing more than 150
technical articles and 12 book chapters to his professional societies.
He is a fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers, member of American
Chemical Society, American Institute of Physics, AAAS, and Sigma Xi.
Lee Woo started his professional
career with E. I. Dupont working on polymer characterization techniques
with an R&D-100 Award winning Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) to his
credit. Prior to joining Baxter Healthcare, he conducted research on
polyolefins, thermoplastic elastomers, and adhesives at the ARCO
Chemical Company. In 1984, he was appointed technical director at
Baxter’s corporate Material and
Membrane
Technology
Center,
and in 24 years of service at Baxter, he and his teams resolved numerous
important issues, and invented new materials, processes and devices. In
the mid-80’s, he discovered that many rigid plastics devices become
brittle due to a phenomenon called physical aging, and found ways to
prevent it. The spider diagram he used to graphically analyze product
performance is now the standard practice for major companies.
In 1992, he became the first person appointed to the position of
Baxter Distinguished Scientist, and currently holds the position of
Distinguished Scientist Emeritus.